China grid eyes building 2 new UHV power lines this yr

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

BEIJING, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The State Grid Corporation of China plans to start building two more ultra high voltage (UHV) power lines this year after its second pilot UHV line was put into operation last month, a company newspaper said on Friday.

All preparatory works for the Huainan-Wannan-Shanghai line and Xilingol League-Nanjing line have been completed and construction will start after other relevant conditions are ready, Sun Xin, head of the UHV department under the grid, was quoted as saying by the State Grid News.

Sun did not disclose possible investments or line capacity.

The Huainan-Wannan-Shanghai line is part of the firm’s alternating current loop line plan in the Yangtze river delta, while the Xilingol League-Nanjing line, along with Zhangbei-Nanchang and North Shaanxi-Changsha lines, make up its plan of three longitudinal UHV alternating current lines that would send power from northern China to southern regions.

The company has also planned three horizontal alternating current UHV lines: West Inner Mongolia-Weifang, Central Shanxi-Xuzhou and Yaan-southern Anhui, in addition to 11 UHV direct current lines, all set for completion by the end of 2015.

The leading grid operator in China started running the world’s first 1,000-kilovolt alternating current power line linking northern Shanxi province and central Hubei province in January 2009 and began operating the 800-kilovolt direct current power line last month that sends hydropower from western Sichuan to Shanghai in the east.

Sun said construction of the firm’s third UHV line, the Jinping-eastern Jiangsu direct current line, was proceeding well as planned.

China has planned to spend 300 billion yuan ($44.3 billion) by 2012 on UHV power lines, fast-tracking an ambitious plan to boost trans-regional power supply capacity.

Different from those in the United States and other countries, the State Grid Corporation of China regards UHV lines as the backbone for its future smart grid networks.

China Southern Power Grid Co, the smaller of China’s grid duopoly, also put into operation an UHV direct current line earlier this year. ($1=6.774 Yuan) (Reporting by Jim Bai and Aizhu Chen; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)